1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to devices for punching holes through business cards, paper or other sheet-like material to be mounted on multi-ring binders.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Multi-ring binders are commonly employed for mounting loose leaf card or paper sheets. The binders are provided with closable rings mounted on a spine with front and back covers which can be closed to protect the mounted sheets. Among the binder designs which are commercially available are those in which three or more rings are mounted at spaced positions along the spine. The number of rings and their spacing is varied in accordance with the dimensions of the paper or other requirements. Particularly for larger size material a larger number of rings are provided. Certain of the binder designs provide sets of rings which are equally spaced apart with longer spacing between the ring sets. Typically replacement sheets with mounting holes pre-punched in accordance with the spacing of the hole sets are sold for use with these binders.
Hole punches are commonly available so that blank paper sheets can be punched by the user for mounting in binders, but this requires that the hole sets of the punches correspond with the number of rings and ring spacing of the particular binder. Three-ring paper punches are commonly available, and in many of these punches the spacing between the punch pegs can be adjusted by the user for matching different ring binders. However, these types of punches are relatively large and bulky such that they are not mobile, and they do not lend themselves to be stored in small spaces such as in a user's desk drawer or briefcase.
Business cards are widely used by professionals and other workers when making contacts at business meetings or on trips. Typically people receiving business cards either transfer information from the cards onto their computer or other media at their office, or attempt to organize the cards by filing them according to different categories of information. A conventional system for organizing the cards is with a plastic jacket in which the cards are placed. The plastic jacket method is inconvenient from the standpoint that it requires that the cards be rearranged to make space for a new card, and this is a time consuming process. The prior art hole punchers are not readily adaptable for punching standard business cards for filing in a multi-ring binder.
The need has been recognized for a hole punch which obviates the foregoing and other limitations and disadvantages of prior art hole punches. Despite the various types of hole punches in the prior art, there has not yet been provided a suitable and attractive solution to these problems.